Cloward and Piven

In 1966, two Columbia University sociologists Richard Cloward and his wife Frances Piven — both members of the Democratic Socialists of America, wrote an article in the magazine The Nation, entitled “The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty”. They hoped to replace U.S. welfare system with guaranteed annual income because they believed that the welfare system hurt the poor because it perpetuates poverty, it does not solve it. Their strategy was designed to massively overload the welfare rolls to precipitate the collapse of the welfare system which would inevitably cause it to be replaced with the guaranteed annual income they desired.

Inspired by this strategy, the National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO) was formed in 1967, and its members invaded welfare offices across the country, using threats and violence to bully social workers into expanding the welfare rolls to as many people as possible. From 1965 to 1974, the number of households on welfare more than doubled from 4.3 million to 10.8 million. The system became overloaded, millions of more people became dependent of welfare – their lives and prospects greatly diminished, and yet the system never collapsed and guaranteed annual income was never implemented. The only things this strategy did was harm the system, and hurt the people.